The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Leslie has been waiting for her Ford Fiesta for quite a while now. She’s been patient and not too sad, but was still delighted when the automaker sent her a letter apologizing for the delay, including a $50 Mastercard gift card. “Fifty dollars is no lottery win,” she writes, “but hey, it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day.” Very wise, Leslie.

Last April 26th I pre-ordered a new Fiesta from a local dealership. Since they went into production on May 1st, I understood that there would be a wait because of the backlog of previous pre-orders, but was expecting it to arrive somewhere near the end of June, first of July. As I am writing to Consumerist, you can guess how that panned out. It is currently August 11th, and still no car, because hurricanes and tropical storms took out roads and railroad tracks, putting a serious crimp in their ability to transport my car from Mexico to the USA.

Fortunately for me, I have not been carless in the meantime, and could afford to wait for the Fiesta to arrive. My patience has been rewarded with cold hard cash from Ford! (See attached letter.)

(I realize that fifty dollars is no lottery win, but hey, it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day.)

I appreciate that Ford is an automaker that didn’t take bailout money, and they appreciate my business in return! Just wanted to share a bit of good customer care with your readers to help offset all the stories of customer no-service.

Also, my car is now in Texas and headed my direction. Cross your fingers it arrives next week as planned!

We hope it does! In the meantime, you can comfort yourself by watching the semi-legendary Top Gear review of the European Fiesta from a few model years ago. This new U.S, version will be a little different, but will tear through a mall and handle a beach assault with the Marines just as well. We assume.